Supply and Demand

“Very good, Sarrus, your application has been submitted along with your security deposit,” Gaius Nefar relayed over subspace comms with his latest mark. The “security deposit” transferred directly to his own coffers and “application” instantly deleted, Gaius scratched his stubble-laden chin. The evening hadn’t been as successful as he had hoped and he felt the need to take down a large haul. Eyes flicking over to his reliable contacts, a sinister grin spread across his face.

“Say Sarrus,” he enticed, “how are you going to make money when you’re down in unmanaged space?” He knew the mark had been scammed out of almost all of his cash, but preying on others’ greed was one of Gaius’ most finely-honed skills.

“Oh I’m sure you’re right – you are going to be successful out there, but goods are mighty expensive and you can get into debt pretty quick. A lot of people actually buy goods here in Empire-controlled territories and have them safely shipped out through our contractors for sale. Or,” he paused, as if having an epiphany, “you could take your current ships and equipment and have it shipped down, and sell off everything you aren’t using at a huge profit!” The trap was set.

Right on cue a long-time ally hopped on the channel, pretending to be a neutral, third-party hauling contractor. The two bounced the mark between them, arguing about price and logistics and finally agreed to haul the man’s goods, this one time only, for free. To soothe the man’s concerns about packaging up all of his worldly wealth and possessions and transferring them to a stranger, they promised him a proper receipt to help with any disputes in the event that the hauler lost the shipment in the dangerous reaches of lawless space. Full restitution would be made, they promised, in the event of such unlikely happenstance.

With several key, legally-binding forms paperwork slipped into the mass of official-looking paperwork, Sarrus had transferred everything but the clothes on his back to the two grifters. “Welcome aboard!” they smiled as they split his possessions down the middle, “You’ll hear back on the results of your security background check tomorrow!”

Setting his comm relays to ignore any further correspondence from the bilked target, Gaius took a brief accounting of his ill-gotten gains before turning his ship toward far-off horizons.